


The Breakup Remedy

by Anthropologicality



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 17:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1275202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthropologicality/pseuds/Anthropologicality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Teddy breaks up with Amy, Jake sets out to try to cheer her up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Breakup Remedy

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing fanfiction in over a year, I think, but these two are just so adorable and last night's episode killed me and this would not leave me alone while I tried to ignore screaming children today.
> 
> P.S. No offense to any Law and Order fans; I've never seen the show myself but it was the first show to pop into my head.

The realization that Charles was right for once and that he actually does like Amy hits Jake like a ton of bricks, because why did he have to fall for  _Amy Santiago_ , of all people? That's not a good thing. She's his partner and she's fun to tease but he can't  _like_ her. But he also can't deny a lot of things.

There's the crushing feeling he gets when she says she's going out to dinner with stupid, dumb, good-for-her Teddy. There's the same feeling, only multiplied, when he finally works up the courage to properly ask her out—only to discover her going out with Teddy again.

There's the agony he goes through watching them be together.

Her weekends start filling up with dates with him, even her weeknights often including Teddy when before, Jake could often get her to come out to the bar and now he's there alone, thinking of her. Teddy starts coming by the precinct every so often, and every time he does, Jake runs to the break room and complains about him to various co-workers.

Sure, he'd always made fun of Santiago's possible romantic prospects, but he hopes she doesn't notice when he goes extra-hard on Teddy. If she does, she doesn't say anything. Charles does, however, and when one day after a particularly nasty complaining-and-mocking session (Jake had seen them making out earlier) he asks why Jake cares so much in that ridiculous high-pitched Mamma Mia truth voice of his Jake can only say "I don't! She's my partner, alright? I don't care who she dates." But Boyle obviously doesn't believe him and just stares at him pityingly until Jake finally walks away knowing he's right. Again.

So a few months later when Teddy breaks up with her and he hears the news through Gina, Jake seizes the opportunity to try to cheer her up. He shows up at her apartment unannounced and she groans a little when she sees it's him ("I know you're upset, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he says). She's dressed in sweatpants and an old, ratty Academy t-shirt, and her tear-streaked face and red eyes make it clear she's been crying. It's the only time he's ever seen her not dressed up, collected, and composed, professional and perky. Besides when she's drunk, of course, but this is totally different.

"Look, Peralta, if you're here to mock me, please don't," Amy says quietly, and the crying is still evident in her voice. "When I'm ready to hear cruel, mocking jokes about him, I'll come to you, because you've been doing it anyway, but right now I—I just want to be left alone." She starts to close the door but he follows her in and envelops her into a hug.

She's taken aback at first, and stiff as a board, but after a moment, she relaxes into the hug and then the sobs come again and she's crying into his chest and clutching at his shirt and he just holds her tighter and for once, doesn't say a word.

(Her hair smells like coconut. He has a musky sort of scent she can't quite place but likes, mixed with candy.)

A short while later she starts to pull away from the hug and he reluctantly lets her go. "So what did you come over here for?" she asks.

"Can't a guy just visit his partner without being interrogated?" but she's not amused and he didn't think she would be, so he holds up the plastic shopping bag in his hand and says, "Breakup remedy."

She raises her eyebrows and he sits down and her couch and begins unloading the seemingly random display of items. Macaroni & cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, Twizzlers, and Cherry Garcia ice cream, which she wonders if he knew is her favorite, and if so, how he could possibly know because she's never told anyone and almost never buys it for herself. Finally he pulls out a box of chocolates.

He starts explaining all the foods—"Nacho macaroni & cheese, which is of course macaroni & cheese including nacho chips and salsa. It's god-like, Santiago," he throws in super-seriously with widened eyes when she crinkles up her nose in disgust. "You have to try it. Twizzlers, because I saw them and decided I wanted Twizzlers and they're candy so they're good for a breakup, so I stand by them. Ice cream because that is a breakup necessity and I got your favorite kind and chocolates because girls seem to like them and because chocolate is good." He sits back, pleased, and watches her to gauge her reaction. He sits back up again suddenly. "Oh! And I brought DVDs of every good cop show known to man, but I forgot them in my car."

"Jake, this—is amazing," she breathes. "I can't believe you did this."

"You're my partner," he says simply, not wanting to get into the whole thing. A ghost of a weak smile flits across her face, but it's not quite all there.

"As for the show, if you don't want to go back to your car, I've got  _Psych_  and  _Law and Order_ right here," she offers, and he instantly vetoes  _Law and Order_  for undisclosed reasons but she gets to gloat a bit when he's never heard of  _Psych_ and she pops in the first season. First, though, she goes to splash water on her face and he makes his nacho macaroni & cheese. She stares at it warily and he's all but begging her to try the concoction and insisting that it's "god-like." He finally picks up the spoon and feeds it to her, and her eyes go wide. "That  _is_ god-like."

"Told you," and his smug grin makes her involuntarily smile back.

"Why didn't you introduce me to this before?"

He shrugs. "You never needed it before." She looks confused a moment but doesn't press further. Instead, she takes the bowl of nacho mac & cheese and sits back in the couch, pressing play on the DVD.

They sit for hours, working their way through most of the first season as well as breaking into all of the food he brought in some way or another, with the open box of chocolates and bag of Twizzlers on the couch between them and each of them picking at it. Jake loves the show, and they make a game of trying to guess the murderer and who guesses the most right. They bet on who could get the most at the end of the series, but the stakes weren't as high as their previous bet; this time, only ten dollars was up, but it was enough to bring out the competitive nature in both of them.

Before they know it, it's one in the morning, and she says he should probably go if they want to be competent at work in the morning. He agrees and they stand up and spend a moment looking at each other.

"Hey," she says, "want to continue tomorrow after work?"

His face breaks out into a huge, goofy grin and he says, "Yeah, I'd like that."

As he's standing in the doorway, almost ready to leave, Amy does something completely on impulse, which is big for her: she kisses Jake on the cheek, gives him another, brief, hug, and says, "Thank you, Jake. Really. I needed this."

He smiles, nods and tips an imaginary hat to her. "Anytime."


End file.
